New-NJPW TV (Season 1)
The first season of New-NJPW TV, 'a professional wrestling show, started airing on August 6, 2016 on the AXS TV Network in the United States and on TV Asahi in Japan. The debut season of New-New Japan Pro Wrestling presents the Japanese "strong style" of wrestling as a mixture of reality and fiction, adding fantastical elements and movie style backstage clips mixed in with wrestling matches. 'Plot overview The first season on New-New Japan Pro Wrestling introduced the viewers to Funaki, a professional wrestler, who bought founded a wrestling company using Hulk Hogan's Gawker lawsuit money, which he won via a poker game. Funaki would invite wrestlers from across the world to come to the newly built Dome Hall to compete and fight against one another, to become the best. Before the first season had begun, New-NJPW announced the New-IWGP Heavyweight Championship and crowned it's first champion, Kazuchika Okada at the New-Lucha Underground event, Ultima Lucha. On the debut episode ("A New Beginning"), Funaki revealed the New-IWGP Intercontinental Championship and attempted to reward it to Brock Lesnar, but Brock emphatically refused the title, referring to it as a "consolation prize" after being unsuccessful in winning the New-IWGP Heavyweight Championship. In the same episode, it was implied there were plans for a women's division Championship. During the special episode 6 ("The New Beginning in Osaka"), the first New-IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion (Rockstar Spud), New-IWGP Intercontinental Champion (Shinsuke Nakamura) and New-NEVER Women's Champion (Paige) were crowned. 'Cast and crew' Main article: New-Lucha Underground cast and crew 'Episodes' |- |1 |2 | "Shots Fired" |August 12, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |3 | "Start of a Climax" |August 20, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |4 | "Reigning Bullets" |August 26, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |5 | "The End of The Beginning" |September 3, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |6 | "The New Beginning in Osaka" |September 11, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |7 | "Crashing the Party" |September 17, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |8 | "Tag Team's Galore!" |September 25, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |9 | "Best Friends, Better Enemies... Even Better Partners?" |October 3, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |10 | "This Isn't Clash of Champions... A New-NJPW Parody" |October 9, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |11 | "Path to Destruction" |October 15, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |12 | "Destruction in Kobe" |October 23, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |13 | "Rage in the Cage" |October 29, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |14 | "Late Night Double Feature Wrestling Show" |October 23, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |15 | "Return to Form" |December 10, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |16 | "Power Struggle in Chicago" |December 18, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |17 | "Season's Beatings" |December 24, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |18 | "Thy Kingdom Come" |December 31, 2016 |- | colspan="4" | |- |1 |19 | "Wrestle Kingdom" |January 4, 2017 |- | colspan="4" | |} 'Production' All the wrestling matches were taped on location in Tokyo, Japan, where a new sporting arena was built to be the "New-NJPW TV" set. The shows themselves aired live every Saturday night. Throughout the season Joshua Hall and Taka Michinoku provided commentary.